Hookslide'sHot Box

The Travelers Return to Dickey-Stephens Parkon Thursday, July 7

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Comment Champion
"College draftees get bigger signing bonuses, typically. HS kids get to free agency quicker and hence stand to make much more money. There's actually a good series of articles about this on fangraphs.com. It actually uses Cole and Tyler Chatwood as examples. You should consider investigating the details before arbitrarily taking a stance. Maybe see if Chatwood would trade his spot in the Angels rotation and 3 months of MLB service time for the glory years of overuse at college." -- Mars

It is played everywhere. In parks and playgrounds and prison yards. In back alleys and farmer's fields. By small boys and old men. By raw amateurs and millionaire professionals.

It is a leisurely game that demands blinding speed. The only game in which the defense has the ball.

It follows the seasons, beginning each year with the fond expectancy of springtime and ending with the hard facts of autumn.

Americans have played baseball for more than 200 years, while they conquered a continent, warred with one another and with enemies abroad, struggled over labor and civil rights and the meaning of freedom.

At its heart lie mythic contradictions: a pastoral game, born in crowded cities; an exhilarating democratic sport that tolerates cheating and has excluded as many as it has included; a profoundly conservative game that often manages to be years ahead of its time.

It is an American odyssey that links sons and daughters to fathers and grandfathers. And it reflects a host of age-old American tensions: between workers and owners, scandal and reform, the individual and the collective.

It is a haunted game in which each player is measured by the ghosts of all who have gone before.

Most of all, it is about time and timelessness, speed and grace, failure and loss, imperishable hope... and coming home.

Razorback basketball died on March 2, 2002, and if you were one of the people in favor of firing Nolan Richardson that day, you are guilty of killing it.

Nine years ago, the proverbial "turds and a$$holes" won and pushed out the most successful coach in Razorback athletics history not named John McDonnell. Nolan was out after ushering in a 17-year era of unprecedented heights for the University of Arkansas' basketball program.

And in the seasons since, we have all suffered thanks to this massive blunder made by the UA athletic department, some racist cronies on the Board of Trustees, and the fan mob on the Internet and talk shows that spewed its venom toward Nolan and pushed the fire-Nolan campaign until they claimed victory.

Turns out, nine years later after terrible basketball and two coaches, the anti-Nolan crowd actually lost.

A funny thing happened in the last year as the fans soured on yet another Nolan successor: They started to clamor for Mike Anderson as the next coach.

Mike Anderson? The same guy none of these people wanted anything to do with nine years ago when he was the UA's interim basketball coach and desperately wanted the job in spite of everything that was done to his mentor and great friend? The same guy who was passed over yet again when Stan Heath (the guy heralded for emphasizing rebounding, as if that equaled points) got the boot?

Former LSU coach Dale Brown put it best -- what happened to Nolan Richardson at Arkansas was a crime.

Now the same people responsible for that crime are acting like nothing ever happened, and they want Anderson to come in and restore the program to the glory years of -- and here's the punchline -- the Nolan era.

Arkansas Razorback fans don't deserve Mike Anderson after what they did to Nolan.

The Razorback fans who were anti-Nolan and now pro-Anderson are hypocrites. The new talking point from this crowd is that Anderson needed nine years away to establish his own identity. That's just an easy thing to say to rationalize why they were against this hire twice in the last nine years without admitting how wrong they were -- about everything.

All these people really care about is winning after realizing the last nine years were a monumental mistake (just like Pelphrey disciplining players is great until it results in losses, then Pelphrey is suddenly too hard on his players). An apology and a giving of alms from all involved would be more appropriate.

So what does the Mike Anderson hire prove?

It proves they were wrong about firing Nolan.

The Anderson hiring is a victory for all those who stood by Richardson -- and a bitter defeat for those who reveled in firing a coach who brought them the best years of Razorback basketball in the their lives.

It also proves Razorback basketball is finally back.

Now please return the slobbering Hog to its rightful place at center court.

I am a University of Arkansas graduate and a baseball fan, yet I have no interest in Razorback baseball. The college version is an inferior product compared to what is on display courtesy of Double-A talent throughout the summer at Dickey-Stephens Park, and the Razorback coach usually comes off as a Grade A ass.

However, bringing Razorback baseball to Dickey-Stephens Park for a single game each spring has two primary benefits that makes me in favor of this amateur display of baseball prowess.

First, the sold-out crowds remind the University of Arkansas administration once again that Central Arkansas is a vital market to the financial success of its sports money makers. A large percentage of donations sent to the Razorback Foundation comes from this area, and fans from Central Arkansas account for a big portion of ticket sales for the big three sports played on the Hill.

But second, and most importantly, hosting the Razorbacks brings out people to Dickey-Stephens Park who otherwise might not realize that this is the premier baseball facility in Arkansas (one that absolutely should be hosting the high school playoffs, but that's a topic for another day). Let's face it, Arkansas is not really a collective "good sports town" unless you are talking about the Razorbacks, and exposure to Dickey-Stephens will bring people to Travelers games starting next month who otherwise might not be interested.

However... if the University of Arkansas athletic department is going to make the effort to bring its brand (which is basically how the athletic director approaches it these days) to Dickey-Stephens Park for a one-game showcase before a sold-out house, the least the Arkansas Travelers could do is HAVE THE FIELD READY AND PRESENTABLE for a game of this magnitude.

At Tuesday night's game, the outfield was mostly patches of yellow, and the infield wasn't too much better. It seems like this problem with the grass has been going on for two or three seasons now, but this is the worst I remember seeing it.

Yes, it is early spring and maybe the grass hasn't come in yet. But I don't see Baum Stadium or AutoZone Park (the Hogs' next destination) using that excuse. The appearance of the field simply put a stain on the game and brought shame to Central Arkansas as it battles back the arrogant tone continuously coming from NWA.

Is it going to be another bad season for the grass at Dickey-Stephens? Maybe it is time to get a refund from the Major League Baseball guy who planted this turf in the first place.

It's time to play Fact or Fiction, the fun game where Travelers fans get to decide what is true and what is crazy rumor! In the spirit of Captain Bully S. Whizbang, the truth-to-BS ratio of the items below could sway more toward BS, and no truth is herewith claimed among these items floating in the rumor mill.

This edition of Fact or Fiction focuses on recent rumors about former Travs general manager Chief Operating Office Bill Valentine, who abruptly resigned prior to the start of the 2009 season. Post your answers for a chance to win dinner for two with Shelly, the pro-slavery horse mascot who sold out to big oil.

Fact or Fiction: Valentine, serving in his role as one of two vice presidents for the Texas League Board of Directors, took a trip to Major League Baseball's winter meetings in Orlando and billed the Travs for the trip.

Fact or Fiction: The Travelers front office paid this bill for Valentine's trip, even though he is not supposed to be on the payroll anymore.

Fact or Fiction: Some members or the Travelers' Board of Directors and stockholders are really upset with Valentine for charging this trip to the Travs and for other past simmering issues.

Fact or Fiction: Other members of the Travs' board suggested Travs general manager Pete Laven pay the bill and just keep quiet about it.

Fact or Fiction: Bill Valentine is considering suing the Travelers in order to get his wife's job back as a bookkeeper in the organization.

Fact or Fiction: The Travs tried to hold a secret hot-stove meeting with Torii Hunter in attendance exclusively for people of their choosing. Then when it was canceled because snow in Dallas kept Hunter from making it, they scheduled another hot-stove meeting for all fans and acted like the other one was never planned. And they got away with it!

Ferguson Jenkins, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, former Cy Young Award winner, and a bobblehead night giveaway at Ray Winder Field thanks to the parts of three seasons he spent with the Arkansas Travelers from 1963 to 1965, was honored with a Canadian postage stamp in February to commemorate Black History Month.

His time with the Travs was recounted recently in a piece in the Toronto Globe and Mail, and his introduction to the Jim Crow South sounded pretty nasty thanks to the racist element that forever scarred Little Rock.

He was aged 20 when assigned to the Arkansas Travelers, a minor-league team based in Little Rock. Only six years earlier, an angry mob of violent whites confronted nine black students seeking to attend Central High School.

Those same elements did not welcome black athletes. On Opening Day in 1963, white supremacists picketed the ballpark with signs reading, “Don’t Negro-ize baseball.” Other signs included foul epithets.

“It was a shock at the beginning. But I’d read about it in the paper, so I was used to it. We knew it was going to happen. They told four of us in spring training that we were going to Little Rock and could we handle the pressure.”

He was joined in integrating Arkansas baseball by the slugging Dick Allen, of Wampum, Pa., and fellow pitchers Marcelino Lopez, a Cuban, and Richard Quiroz, a Panamanian.

“The pressure was not on the field,” he said. “It was off the field.”

The 'idiots' responsible for the banners became less obvious once the team began winning. “They embraced us after a while,” he said.